BOY SCOUT RECORDS SHOW ABUSE BY LEADERS IN COUNTY

At least 10 expelled by the organization from 1970 to 1991

In cases involving volunteers in San Diego, the organization appeared to take prompt action to expel volunteers from the organization once they became aware of allegations against the known or suspected predators, according to the files on ineligible volunteers.

In five cases, officials blacklisted a volunteer after the volunteer was arrested, according to ineligible volunteer files. In one case, a volunteer was ousted from the Scouts two days before being arrested.

It’s unclear from his case file whether the organization, the victim’s family or some third party alerted the police.

In the remaining four cases, officials ousted members soon after learning that the volunteers had a previous criminal history involving child molestation, according to the files.

Unknown past

The Boy Scouts of America has posted on its website a timeline of efforts to protect youth. It begins with the organization’s incorporation on Feb. 8, 1910, and shows a gradual strengthening of rules and requirements for vetting volunteers and reporting known or suspected predators.

By 1975, the organization vetted volunteers by checking character references and requiring all Scouts, scoutmasters and men involved in scouting to register as members, according to the timeline. Officials in the organization checked volunteers against the national list of “ineligible volunteers,” which listed people deemed lacking “moral, emotional or character values.”

The vetting process in the mid-1970s was not enough to catch Raymond Lawrence Weeks, then a 35-year-old convicted child molester living in Lemon Grove, according to his ineligible volunteer file.

Weeks was first convicted of molesting children in 1969, according to court records. Then 29 and living in Poway, Weeks molested brothers in a family with whom he had been friends.

A judge sentenced Weeks to five years’ probation and ordered him to register as a sex offender, according to court records.

In June 1974, a judge decided to release Weeks from probation six months early, reduce his felony conviction to a misdemeanor, set aside the conviction and release him from all penalties resulting from the offense — apparently including his obligation to register as a sex offender, according to court records.

Part of the basis was Weeks’ success with probation, strong character references, commitment to psychological therapy and lack of a prior criminal record beyond a traffic ticket for running a red light in 1960, according to court records.

Soon after, Weeks signed on with the scouts, according to court records. The organization didn’t know about Weeks’ criminal history and allowed him to become a scoutmaster, according to Weeks’ ineligible volunteer file.

Criminal background checks for volunteers were not required when Weeks signed up.

It would be nearly two decades before the organization began requiring background checks for adults involved in scouting, with a series of measures that added more stringent checks over time.

Closing the door

Weeks molested Scouts at least from December 1974 until August 1975, according to court records.

He admitted molesting two Scouts, whom authorities identified as victims, and “six or seven” more scouts whose abuse never became part of the proceedings against him.